docs/design/part-toc.txt

Implementing GstToc support in GStreamer elements

1. General info about GstToc structure

GstToc introduces a general way to handle chapters within multimedia
formats. GstToc can be represented as tree structure with arbitrary
hierarchy. Tree item can be either of two types: chapter or edition.
Chapter acts like a part of the media data, for example audio track
in CUE sheet, or part of the movie. Edition acts like some kind of
alternative way to process media content, for example DVD angles.
GstToc has one limitation on tree structure: on the same level of
hierarchy there couldn't be items of different type, i.e. you shouldn't
have editions and chapters mixed together. Here is an example of right TOC:

  -------  TOC  -------
           /  \
   edition1    edition2
   |           |
   -chapter1   -chapter3
   -chapter2       

Here are two editions, the first contains two chapters, and the second
has only one chapter. And here is an example of invalid TOC:

  -------  TOC  -------
           /  \
   edition1    chapter1
   |                 
   -chapter1
   -chapter2    
 
Here you have edition1 and chapter1 mixed on the same level of hierarchy,
and such TOC will be considered broken.

GstToc has 'entries' field of GList type which consists of children items.
Each item is of type GstTocEntry. Also GstToc has list of tags and
GstStructure called 'info'. Please, use GstToc.info and GstTocEntry.info
fields this way: create a GstStructure, put all info related to your element
there and put this structure into the 'info' field under the name of your
element. Some fields in the 'info' structure can be used for internal
purposes, so you should use it in the way described above to not to
overwrite already existent fields.

Let's look at GstTocEntry a bit closer. One of the most important fields
is 'uid', which must be unique for each item within the TOC. This is used
to identify each item inside TOC, especially when element receives TOC
select event with UID to seek on. Field 'subentries' of type GList contains
children items of type GstTocEntry. Thus you can achieve arbitrary hierarchy
level. Field 'type' can be either GST_TOC_ENTRY_TYPE_CHAPTER or
GST_TOC_ENTRY_TYPE_EDITION which corresponds to chapter or edition type of
item respectively. Field 'pads' of type GList contains list of GStreamer
pads related to the item. It can be used for example to link a TOC with
specific pad. Field 'tags' is a list of tags related to the item. And field
'info' is similar to GstToc.info described above.

So, a little more about managing GstToc. Use gst_toc_new() and gst_toc_free()
to create/free it. GstTocEntry can be created using gst_toc_entry_new() and
gst_toc_entry_new_with_pad(). The latter method used to create GstTocEntry
linked to particular pad. While building GstToc you can set start and stop
timestamps for each item using gst_toc_entry_set_start_stop().
The best way to process already created GstToc is to recursively go through
the 'entries' and 'subentries' fields.

2. Working with GstQuery

GstQuery with GstToc can be created using gst_query_new_toc(). Use
gst_query_set_toc() to set TOC into the query and parse it with
gst_query_parse_toc(). The 'extend_uid' parameter (0 for root level) in two
last methods should be used for TOC extending: get GstTocEntry with
gst_toc_find_entry() by given UID and use it to add your own chapters/editions.
The common action on such query is to set TOC for it.

3. Working with GstMessage

GstMessage with GstToc can be created using gst_message_new_toc() and parsed
with gst_message_parse_toc(). The 'updated' parameter in these methods indicates
whether the TOC was just discovered (set to false) or TOC was already found and
have been updated (set to true). The common usage for such message is to post it
to pipeline in case you have discovered TOC data within your element.

4. Working with GstEvent

GstToc supports select event through GstEvent infrastructure. The idea is the
following: when you receive TOC select event, parse it with
gst_event_parse_toc_select() and seek stream (if it is not streamable) for
specified TOC UID (you can use gst_toc_find_entry() to find entry in TOC by UID).
To create TOC select event use gst_event_new_toc_select(). The common action on
such event is to seek to specified UID within your element.